


Insomniatic

by Platinum_Amortentia



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Flashbacks, Fluff, Het Relationship, Im not good at tagging, mother!narcissa, young!Draco
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-19
Updated: 2017-04-19
Packaged: 2018-10-20 20:22:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10670091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Platinum_Amortentia/pseuds/Platinum_Amortentia
Summary: Missing scene from Chapter 7 of Love Might Be Our Redemption. Backstory on Draco's insomnia and the Malfoy family death eaters.





	Insomniatic

**Author's Note:**

> Expanding on a headcanon I had. I love writing about the Malfoys as a family and Draco as a child, growing up in that environment. If anyone has ideas in that type of scenario they want me to try writing I will give it a shot. :)

Draco hadn’t slept well in a long time. 

In fact, it was at the point now where if he didn’t have Pansy with him in some way, he would lie awake the entire night, staring at the ceiling of his dorm, mind blank and wondering how he was born into such a mess. Then the sun would rise, Mordecai would fly back into his room to give him a hoot good morning, and Draco would blearily get up for class and pray that no one noticed he looked like the walking dead. 

But when Pansy was there, sitting on the edge of his bed, a sedated like peace fell over him every time. Her gentle hands ran rhythmically through his hair, the same way they did that first morning on the Hogwarts express and he had realized how much like liked it. Through his hair, down his back, across his shoulders...she stayed as long as she needed to, murmuring sweet nothings to him and assuring him that nothing would happen to him and he could sleep. Sometimes after he was out she left, creeping back to her own dorm, and other times when it was far too late she simply curled up next to him and shut her own eyes. 

Her touch brought Draco back to his childhood, a boy of only five who would patter through Malfoy Manor at twilight, eyes wide with fear and lower lip trembling as his little feet carried him to his parent’s master bedroom. With all his might he would push the heavy wooden doors open and walk what seemed like miles to Lucius and Narcissa’s bed, where both were asleep. There he would stand on tiptoe and wrap his little fingers around his mother’s hand, tugging at her with a sense of urgency only a child with night terrors could have. Narcissa would open her eyes with only the grace and poise a Malfoy pulled out of sleep could have, and look at her son. 

“I dreamed about the bad man again,” Draco would whisper. Countless dreams he had, night after night of a pale man with red eyes, no nose and yellow teeth, striding gracefully across a wooden floor in black, tattered robes and no shoes, wand raised and glare menacing. 

Narcissa would simply get up as Lucius slept on and walk Draco back to his room, tucking him in and telling him to close his eyes before running her fingers through his hair and whispering soothing words to him. “Mommy’s here, Draco,” she would tell him. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. You can sleep now.”

“Who is he?” Draco would ask each time, wondering again and again why the man kept returning to his dreams. “What does he want?”

Narcissa of course knew who it was, and in time her son would too. But for now, she decided to keep Voldemort out of her child’s mind as much as she could, and give him the childhood she knew he deserved. The Dark Lord would not cease to try and reach her son through dreams, but until he was aware of who Voldemort was and there was confirmation that he had risen again, no harm could come to Draco. 

But as he grew, the nightmares continued but his mother’s soothing gestures did not. Night after night he dreamed of the pale man with red eyes, and night after night he pattered across the dark and silent manor to his parent’s room, to one day find the doors locked - the night of his 8th birthday. 

His lip wobbled a little, but he knew without an explanation from his parents what their gesture meant. He was a big boy now, he didn't need mommy to fall asleep, and it was time to let dreams stay dreams and go back to bed. So he turned around, went back to his room, and tried to fall asleep. But every time he shut his eyes, the face was there, laughing at him, reaching for him...

Pansy was different in the sense that unlike Narcissa, she would never tell him it was time to grow up and stop offering her love in that way. That trust and relief was part of the reason he was able to sleep so easy next to her, despite her tiny figure being even less protection to him than the idea of his mother protecting him as a young child. Now he knew the man in his dreams was Voldemort, and that dream had become a reality, as now he was old enough to do what he had essentially been born to do: carry on the Malfoy name and Death Eater duties should his father fail. They hadn’t planned on it being this young, but Lucius was in Azkaban and he had no choice. Or else they would all die. 

Pansy’s hand was gliding up and down his back, gently soothing him into unconsciousness. If Potter knew he couldn’t fall asleep without a girl’s help, especially Pansy Parkinson of all people, Draco would have probably just sat down in front of Voldemort and offered up his life then and there. Even if Crabbe or Goyle knew, anyone at all. He would have been embarrassed by it if it didn’t work so well, and if Pansy didn’t treat him like he was anything but normal. That’s why he loved her - she understood and was there for him when he was vulnerable. Always. 

His last recollection before he finally fell asleep was her lips by his ear, kissing his cheek gently before whispering the words he would never tire of hearing. 

I’m here.


End file.
